1921 photo of a shepherd with a trâmbiţă, in Giuleşti (Maramureş).
A mural in Voroneţ Monastery showing an angel playing a bucium at the onset of the Last Judgment.

The bucium (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈbutʃjum], also called trâmbiţă or tulnic) is a type of alphorn used by mountain dwellers and by shepherds in Romania and Moldova. The word is derived from Latin bucinum, originally meaning "curved horn", an instrument used by the Romans. The word is a cognate with English "bugle".

The tube is made from limetree bark, wood, or even (partially) from metal. It is mostly used by shepherds for signaling and communication in the forested mountains, as well as for guiding sheep and dogs. Trâmbiţa (from the old Germanic trumba, "to trumpet") produces sounds altogether different from those of the alphorn.

Under the name trembita it is also used by the Ukrainian Hutsuls and the Polish Gorals.

See also

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